In the effort of creating a usable and enjoyable community experience for everyone, we've established a few simple ground rules that everyone is expected to follow and help make that experience worthwhile. After all, everybody agrees to know and live by them when creating an account. They come in two delicious varieties: cocktail weenie and footlong. So take a bite... dessert's on us.

Should any of your content require moderation, the team will take care of it. If it is simply removing things like double- or off-topic posts, we likely won't bug you about it and simply take care of the posts. If it requires a little more discussion about these rules, you may be contacted by the moderation team.

If you have any questions, contact Cortjezter or our Moderator Team. A good rule of thumb: if you're even slightly unsure about something, ASK before posting.

Respect others on the site. It shouldn't have to be said, but we will anyway. If you: can't get along with others, are incapable of tolerating other peoples' opinions, or suffer any number of other social deficiencies, please don't bother participating on the boards or in the story feedback sections. Read all you like, but let those who actually like the site and our community interact with one another.

Keep a civil tongue. By all means, share your honest thoughts and opinions, but keep your vulgarity, hate speech, flaming, derogatory language, etc. for other gaming cesspools on the web. Our community is diverse and includes many people who aren't into those things. We have no problem banning someone who negatively impacts the experience of others on the site, so please behave.

Trolling. This is a Nintendo fan site, and the vast majority of people come here because they love Nintendo. So while it is fine to have a dissenting opinion, the difference between that and trolling comes down to delivery of that sentiment.

Making overt, unqualified statements that are intentionally or acutely: negative, misinformed, ignorant, or counter-culture where the sole purpose or outcome is to antagonize other members or GoNintendo's community of fans at large, cultivate hostility, or disrupt the peace...is trolling.

By contrast, a negative opinion is typically supported by facts or other rationale based upon existing information that can be sourced with links or other attributions. If you want to rock the boat, you're going to have to take the time and put in the effort to make your case with your rationale or supporting info; something simply not possible with one-liners, so be sure to properly distinguish your opinion from a troll. Vocabulary can also be key; overly strong language (profanity, derogatory terms, etc.) tend to be the realm of trolls. Likewise, a user's post history may be taken into account to determine whether someone's habits are trolling or mere opinions.

It is possible to express the same idea both ways; we allow the opinion version only. Of course, anything you post should also respect others and not infringe upon their ability to express an opinion or enjoy the site. Negative opinions about other people is better kept to one's own brilliant mind.

Trolls will meet an abrupt, terrible fate, so be warned.

Also, "blind Nintendo fanboyism" that antagonizes or otherwise flaunts stalwart ignorance toward users with valid negative opinions will be nicked for trolling. Never feed trolls or even interact with them. Report them to the mods and we'll handle the rest. Use the reporting system wisely; abuse such as using it to report those whom you don't like or don't agree with could get YOU banned.

Word censors. While we have discontinued most of our automatic word censors, that doesn't give license for you to flaunt your weak vocabulary. Please use discretion and some self-restraint; the occasional curse may be allowed for emphasis, but under no circumstances is such language to be used toward other people. Please self-censor curse words if you plan to use them often, but make sure it's obscure enough. Good: s**t, $**t, s***. Bad: su*t, $uit, sui†.

Add genuine, intelligent content.

NO SPAMMING. This site is about genuine content and camaraderie for all things Nintendo, not about self-promotion, status, post count, or relieving your Tourette Syndrome. If you're caught spamming, posting off-topic, useless or promotional content to our site, counter-actions will be taken, up to and including: perma-banning, having posts deleted, post count frozen, or legal action if necesssary. If you have something promotional you want to see on the site, contact us.

You may include personal links in your User Profile or in your forum signature, but not story feedback. Please do not encourage or respond to spam; it makes you equally guilty.

No 1, 2, or 3-word posts. Avoid 'THIS.', 'me too', 'yep', or 'lol har har' type posts. Brevity can be a good thing, but it can also be junk that doesn't contribute. If you're going to take the time to press the submit button, have an original idea or thought behind it, because the examples above are little more than clutter to anyone looking for real content. So before jumping in to post a reply, take a moment to think about what it is you have to actually say; if you can't muster at least four useful words, hold off from posting until you can. Moderators will clear out junk posts at their discretion, so if you want to post a single word, do so at your own risk!

Cross-posting. Be it copy/pasting from another thread or discussion or posting a link to something you've said in another thread (or another site) is fluff that may be removed by mods. If you want to link, quote, or otherwise include your brilliant ideas from elsewhere, be sure to add something to it. Otherwise it might as well be a double post.

Private conversations are for PM, IM, email or chat. If you need to address someone directly or ask them a question, send them a PM, IM, or email. It'll keep the site about the community sharing of knowledge instead of about reading your chat logs.

You don't to need clutter the site with posts for people to "check their inbox". They can already be automatically notified of new messages by the system.

Stay on-topic. Make sure whatever you have to say is either about the topic in the subject or headline, and/or directly relates to another on-topic reply. Don't bother replying to someone if they're off-topic, because then you are too.

Keep it legal. Don't post stuff other people own. This includes warez, ROMs, mp3s of someone else's content, scans of copyrighted content, torrents, or any other example of intellectual property. It also includes linking to such content or transmitting it privately through our messaging system. If you want to share something newsworthy with the community, email it to our tips address; we'll handle the rest. Violations are met by a ban with no warnings, so if you're unsure, ASK FIRST before posting!

No freeloaders. We have a great community, full of active and passionate people. Sometimes we get awesome things to give away. We understand lots of people want free stuff, but our prizes are really for the active members, and typically require activity of some sort to enter the contest.To that end, we will actively suspend new account approvals during contests, so if you intend to sign up just to get a prize, think again. Your account won't be approved until after the contest.

If you already have an account, but zero activity, and try to post in a contest thread, it may not be approved by the moderators for the same reason; we'd prefer prizes be won by active members over lurkers and freebie snipers. You'd be wise to participate in other discussions first, and prove you're here for legit reasons.

No double-posting or flooding.

Pretty straight forward, huh? If one of the LAST TWO posts is yours, wait a bit before submitting anything else. Posting more than once in a row or every-other-one is double-posting/flooding, and may be subject to moderator tidying.

Avoid back-and-forth "conversation" posting. What is this? Basically, two people going back and forth like an instant message, except on our site. If you want to carry on like an IM, please do it in one. Nobody wants to read your chat transcript with another member. Seriously...say your piece and let someone else talk for a bit before jumping right back to the mic.

User reviews

Reviews only. The user reviews are for those who want to legitimately share their opinion on a game... in review form. 1-2 sentences is not a proper review, nor is anything that would fit in a Tweet or Facebook status update. We have a 100 "word" minimum coded into the field. If you can't say at least that much, it's not a review, but a comment. Using filler to reach the minimum requirement is not acceptable.

Decent content. All the above rules of decency apply to reviews.

Original content. If it belongs to someone else, or you have posted it to another site or your own blog, leave it there, and write something new here. Since we will routinely promote user reviews to the blog, it should be unique, not something that might have already appeared in a story.

No spamming/linking. If you have your own site, great. You can put it in your profile or signature, but not in a review.

No trolling. Want to write a review just so you can troll a game you didn't like, or give it the lowest possible score, just to make a statement and annoy other people? Think again. If deemed an illegitimate review, your content will be removed and your ability to participate in the reviews or the site may be affected.

Anything posted to the user reviews which does not meet the above will be removed on your behalf.

Messageboard/Profile specifics

Signatures: No wider than 600px, no taller than 150px, no larger than 75kb. 150px tall includes any lines of text you want to include. You may include links in your sig as long as they don't link to inappopriate content.

You may not post sig-type content to the blog feedback section.

Avatars: No wider than 160px, no taller than 200px, no larger than 40kb.

Use thumbnails to post images when possible. Large images may be removed.

Image and link content should be less than mature rated.

New threads. Be sure you both search AND browse the forums before creating a new topic. Make sure you post to the proper forum area. The subject line should reflect the content, not "Hey! Read this!". Duplicate threads will most often be deleted. If you have any questions, ASK a moderator.

Bumping. Wait a week before bumping a thread or refreshing it with a post.

Dead threads. Leave them alone unless you have something important to say. Posts that revive a topic but add nothing will just be deleted.

Metroid: Other M. While we normally encourage discussion and expression on the site, and try to limit restrictions only to what is necessary for the community's ongoing health, sadly, because most people just can't get into or out of a rational, civil discussion about this game, and it has consistently devolved into the ugliest things we've ever seen in GoNintendo's community history, in the interest of peace-keeping, we do not permit discussion of this game in the general forums.

You may cite the game's title, but talking in any detail about it will earn your post a visit from the moderators. Blog stories about Other M allow comments by default, but the discussion may be closed at any time if there is even a hint of nastiness brewing. Apologies.